Day 186: Quality Education; Opportunity Knocks
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
186 — Quality Education; Opportunity Knocks
04-February-1972
(Freitag–Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
A good day. It seems like events are beginning to pop
up which offer good possibilities. All deal with
Electronic Music.
(1) Dieter Kaufmann introduced me to a student who
has been privately making films. After a short talk,
these are the results: If I can produce the results I
want with my music, and then have an outlined plan as
to what I want filmed, then the possibility of making
this film is good. So, from now on I’m going to
really try and produce results.
(2) A man came into one of our classes and sat around
a while, and then I ended up talking with him. He is
making an educational book and wants an example of
a typical
sound, and then show how it
can be transformed by various means into “concrete”
music [musique
concrète]. I am also going to try
and do this, because it could have good “results”
with respect to: (a) pleasing Rotary at home, (b) my
educational concern (getting a job) as a future
teacher, (c) can be used for my own teaching, (d)
would be a good example to show other schools and
studios where I might want to study, (e) sounds can
be naturally used by myself, and (f) I would have
actually made a meaningful contribution to something.
(3) With Prof. Kaufmann and the three or four of us
in our class, we are going to try and produce some
electronic music for a film that two students have
made.
All in all, a lot of work ahead.
REFLECTIONS
Appreciating
quality education—Horn. Only
yesterday, I mention how I appreciated Prof. Gabler
expanding the horn curriculum and making it more
interesting by providing all types of activities in
addition to simple in-class lessons. For example,
sitting besides him in an orchestra pit rehearsal,
bringing in outside professors for different teaching
methodologies, and placing us in a wide variety of
small and large performing ensembles.
Appreciating quality education—Electronic
music. Today I
give the same appreciation to Prof. Dieter Kaufmann.
Prof. Kaufmann has shown us the art, techniques, and
practices of musique
concrète,
electronic music, improvisation, and contemporary
music. He has also brought in outside speakers from
composers to engineers, and introduced us to concerts
of contemporary music, including his own, very
exciting Pupofon.
Today, in electronic music class, we have another
example of this quality education—two real-world
projects (a film, and an educational book) that offer
us the ability to apply what we learn to a practical
end.
Thanks to the Prof. Kaufmann, Prof. Gabler, and all
the other wonderful professors that year. Thanks to
the Vienna Hochschule für Musik und Dartstellende
Kunst in Wien (Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in
Vienna) for being the bedrock of this experience.
Opportunity knocks. I do not
have to add much to today’s journal entry. There are
two opportunities presented to the students of the
electronic music class. One is to participate in a
film project, and the second is an electronic music
project—take a single sound and show how it can be
manipulated using the techniques of
musique
concrète—recording
and manipulation of sound using tape recorders, tape
splicing, filters, and other manipulation techniques.
This second project will take on an immense
importance for me in my work for the rest of the
semester.
John
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